Adhesive bioelectronics for sutureless epicardial interfacing

Bioadhesive devices can be used to create conformable tissue–device interfaces without suturing. However, the development of such technology faces challenges related to the need for external stimuli or long periods of time for tissue adhesion, fatigue-related breakdown of the stretchable electrodes and the use of solid substrates with non-uniform surface coverage of the tissue. Here, we report a bioelectronic patch that is capable of instantaneous and conformable tissue adhesion on a heart for precise cardiac monitoring. The patch is composed of three layers: an ionically conductive tissue adhesive, a viscoelastic networked film and a fatigue-resistant conducting composite. The system provides conformable tissue adhesion in less than 0.5 s without external stimuli, spontaneous modulus matching based on efficient strain adaptivity and small resistance changes of less than 0.2% at 50.0% tensile strain after 1,000 stretching cycles. We show that the patch can be used for the long-term measurement of electrocardiogram signals (up to four weeks of implantation) in awake rats without causing tissue damage, as well as spatiotemporal mapping in a myocardial ischaemia reperfusion model. A bioelectronic patch that is composed of three layers—an ionically conductive tissue adhesive, a viscoelastic networked film and a fatigue-resistant conducting composite—is capable of instantaneous and conformable tissue adhesion on a heart for precise cardiac monitoring and feedback stimulation.